Thoughts
The homie Alex Kuchma is quickly and quietly becoming a real leader in hip hop academia in Canada. He is working on a monumental hip hop book profiling scenes in 5 Cities across Canada. I believe he has conducted well over 600 interviews for the book and I have read a draft of the Saskatoon Chapter and it has me really excited for the release of the book. He launched a Hip Hop Review that I struggle to explan but it is sort of like an academic journal meets the Earshot charts. It is a tremendous undertaking to put these together each month. There are no frills and no filler within the covers. I just got the second one this week in the mail and I am really excited to dig into it. I am really happy for and excited to see where Alex takes this publication. You can see growth already in the first to the second issues. If you are a rap fanatic I wold highly recommend picking these up and checking them out!
URBNET is running a Spring Sale for 25% of all vinyl, CD’s. Tapes, and Digital. It os a great time to catch up on a release you may have missed or been waiting to pull the trigger on. Code is “SPRING2023” A great opportunity to grab the Swamp Thing album and save a few bucks.
Missed Third Verse last night? Ugsmag has you covered once again to stream or download NOW! Catch Third Verse on CFCR 90.5 fm in Saskatoon, SK every Wednesday 9-10:30pm CST. Stream online via CFCR.ca or Radio Garden.
As always the last 10 episodes of my other weekly radio show You Know Know the Rules on UMFM in Winnipeg airing every Sunday night 10:00pm -11pm CST. Episodes availible NOW!
Record One
Dren - Remixes
The first of two surprises this week was Dren dropping off a DIY CD edition of his Remixes album. Everything I said a couple weeks back about this remix album still stands. From TFTRN vol023-053:
Dren dropped a super dope remix project last Friday for Bandcamp Friday. There are a lot of super sick remixes on this project. I think my favourites are the Gruf & Yy - Civil Defensesses remix and the MC Homeless & Kool Keith - Aliens remix and the signone - battle rap remix. Definelty check it out!
He doesn’t have this CD listed on his Bandcamp but I am sure if really want one Yiou could hit him up and make it happen
Record Two
Kitz Willman - Grim Errands
The second of two wonderful surprises this week came courtesy the homie Ktz Willman via Canada Post. The album is 100% Kitz as he wrote, recorded, performed and produced the album The title track Grim Errands has a ripping baseline that remind of mid 90’s East Bay rap. The album is laced with these ripping baselines. It is the best! I love it! There are a handful of singles that I heard previous, but it is nice to hear them again in the new context amongst the other tracks of the album. Left Lane Larry is my jam!! So good. This album is super sick from to back and I am sure a lot of people reading this will enjoy it when it is released. No Release date has been set but you can definitely cop one when Kitz takes the stages in Regina April 6th at t+a vintage, Saskatoon April 7th at Amigo’s and in Edmonton April 8th at Kaffa Roastery. Sample-Based Prairie Rap In The Tradition Of the Kobzar. I admit, I had to look up what the Kobzar was and this is what I found when I googled it, “Kobzar literally means 'kobza player', a Ukrainian stringed instrument of the lute family”. After a couple listens through this album, it is the best and I can’t wait for others to hear it!
Rap Shirt
This weeks shirt features the homie Parab Poets Saskatoon based rap group Poetic Pilgrims for their album Real to Reel.
Classic Material
Organized Konfusion - Stress (the extinction agenda)
It was the summer of 2007. We were planning what would turnout to be the biggest and completely insane Summer Fling of all time. I am going to focus on one specific event that didn’t happen. We had begun planning Summer Fling and were lining up some extra shows for a mini tour run with Joe Dub. For those of you that don’t know Joe Dub’s - Summer Fling album is the namesake for the rap and graffiti jam. The following details however, I am unclear of. I don’t think Joe Dub and Factor’s Live in 75 album was released for this show or even fully recorded for that matter. I could be completely wrong on this but I think part of him coming down was to record the album. If I am wrong then it was to do a short run of shows coinciding with the release of the album. I don’t think that was the case.
Anyways, I had been talking with Joe and lining ups shows and helping Factor build the mini tour of shows. Joe was like who do you want to come down with me. He threw out a few names one of them being Subtitle the other being Prince Po of the legendary rap crew Organized Konfusion. Joe had mentioned that his homies Amuzition and Alex 75 were going to come to Saskatoon for the weekends events and asked if they could hop on his show. This was no problem at all as they were paying their own way and coming to kick it. It was a real nice bonus. I think Joe and I had half a dozen calls talking about who else should roll with us. I had met Subtitle and kicked it with him one time previous to this and felt we had a good raport with one another and that he would fit really well with the crew. I was also such a big Subtitle fan at the time (and still am) so that was heavily influencing my decision on who should come. Joe was homies with both and vouched for both of them and said either was cool I just needed to let him know who.
As the deadline to make a final decision was approaching, I got another call from Joe Dub, saying that Prince Po wanted to talk to me and had some questions about the shows. So, I just so happened to be at Third Verse in the old basement location when I got a call and had to step out of the studio. It was Prince Po of the legendary rap group Organized Konfusion. I was so so nervous and awkward on the phone with him as I was awestruck and in total fan mode, but trying to stay calm and rational while talking with him. I don’t remember a lot of details but I can picture exactly where I was standing in the station while talking with him. What I do remember is he had two things he would have to have for it to make it work and they sound really ridiculous now as I type this. They were a 200$ USD guarantee a show and and a hotel room. I know, I know you are like Chaps that is nothing. In hindsight yeah that was relatively nothing but I was on the hook for a lot of expenses that weekend and I got really gun shy. I was committed to paying out $20,000 CAD that weekend for the three events and I just got straight up shook. We were able to cover those expenses, thank goodness but it sure created a lot of stress. I called Joe later after the show and said bring Subtitle as it seemed like such a natural and logical choice. I honestly don’t regret that decision at all, as I think It also may have birthed the CAM GRAM and G.A.M. album that was released to vinyl just last year by Audio Recon. There are still a few copies left.
I really never fancied myself as a promoter and when I did commit I would get in way over my head financially and make poor decisions based on rap fandom and not sound business decisions. I have met many a promoter who did the same and they are all out of the game. Thank goodness everything worked out that weekend financially. When we were driving out to the Winnipeg show we took two vehicles as there were a grip of us going. We had Factor’s wife’s Mid 90’s Honda Accord and and mid 90’s mini van of Factor’s dad. On the way to Winnipeg the van broke down. We had to make some decisions on who would continue to Winnipeg in the car and who would stay with the van and likely have to head back to Saskatoon and miss the show. Naturally Joe Dub and Subtitle would continue to Winnipeg. Leaving three spots left in the car. Factor opted out to stay with the Van and sort that out. Factor said I had to go as I was the only one that he trusted to drive the car and take care of it. Nolto also had to go as he had the hookup with his Cousin as to where we were going to crash. So that left one seat in the car between Cam The Wizzard, Kay The Aquanaut, Forgetful Jones and Ben E Elim. I honestly don’t know how this seat was decided but Ben E Slim got it and the rest unfortunately missed the show and had to head back to Saskatoon with the broke down Van.
This was such a fun time in rap. Some of the feelings I felt in this era are coming back as we look to relaunch Summer Fling this year after the covid hiatus. The planning is underway, the plotting and scheming is always my favourite part. We have secured dates for July 21-22 so mark you calendar. There are some really exciting things planned and I can’t wait until we can announce them once they are finalized.
Closing Ramblings
As always, thank you for reading and for the feedback!
**legal disclaimer all records and songs were run through the RAP NEST 5000 SUPER ANALYTIC COMPTROLLER MACHINE that is certified by the I.A.A.R.R.A (International Association of Analytical Rap Recordings Analysis) in layman’s terms, it means the machine is never wrong.
Catch you next week with more thoughts from the rap nest.
Peace
-chaps